Stephen Lawrence Murder: Friends ‘We Might Have Identified a Sixth Suspect’

Dewayne Brooks was at the scene when five or six people assaulted and killed Lawrence in April 1993 in Eltham.

Brooks told the Sunday Mirror that he would have added the late Matthew White to the line-up.

White was identified as the sixth suspect in the murder in a BBC investigation a month ago.

“If I had had him in the ID parade in front of me at the time, I would have picked him 100%,” Brooks said.

“There is no doubt, and I am very confident that other people at the bus station would have found him and the case would have been resolved by then.”

White was first arrested for murder in March 2000 and re-arrested in December 2013, but in both cases the British Public Prosecutor’s Office (CPS) has been convicted of any offence. London’s Metropolitan Police said it had advised that there were no prospects for it.

Brooks said he believed police treated White as a witness rather than a suspect “intentionally” to avoid having to attend the ID parade.

“The investigative team is corrupt and I think they made the decision knowing it would be fatal to the investigation,” Brooks added.

“Matthew White was put in a witness frame when he should have been a suspect. was brought before me.

“But this man was never put before me. was.”

It follows Stephen Lawrence’s mother, who has expressed anger over the lack of action by any police officer over the handling of information about a sixth suspect in her son’s murder.

Doreen Lawrence said a man arrested for leading an attack group against her son escaped arrest due to police mishandling.

“What is maddening about this latest revelation is that the man who allegedly orchestrated the murder of my son escaped trial through police mismanagement and no one has ever been or will be punished. It means that no police officers are being punished,” Lawrence said. .

Two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2012.

Other than White, the remaining three suspects are brothers Neal and Jamie Acourt, who are currently serving prison sentences for drug dealing, and Luke Knight, who is still free.

A Metropolitan Police statement said: “White first came to our attention as a witness in 1993. He was arrested and questioned in March 2000 and December 2013, and documents were presented to prosecutors in May 2005 and October 2014. rice field.

“In both cases, the CPS advised that there was no realistic prospect of conviction of Mr. White for any crime.

“In February 2020, White was spoken to again. There were insufficient eyewitnesses and forensic evidence to proceed.”